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2018-09-25

US Senate Hearing To Examine Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy

What is the impact of digital privacy regulation on the tech industry?

TheAtlantic.com video above published Sep 14, 2018: Victoria Espinel, President, BSA | The Software Alliance, Michael Beckerman, CEO, The Internet Association and Dean Garfield, President and CEO, Internet Technology Industry Council. The panelists weigh in on adapting to regulation, the social impact of technology, and innovation.

Experts in digital privacy and protection weigh in on the current landscape

TheAtlantic.com video above published Sep 14, 2018: Harriet Pearson, Partner, Hogan Lovells, Bruce Schneier, Fellow, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University and Ari Waldman, Professor of Law and Director, Innovation Center for Law and Society, New York Law School share their thoughts on the importance of emphasizing innovation, risks of data collection and consumer rights. More info: protectingprivacy.theatlantic.com.

US Senate Commerce Committee Hearing: Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy: U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing titled “Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy” at 10:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sep 26, 2018. LIVE video of the hearing will be available on commerce.senate.gov.

The hearing will examine privacy policies of top technology and communications firms, review the current state of consumer data privacy, and offer members the opportunity to discuss possible approaches to safeguarding privacy more effectively.

“Consumers deserve clear answers and standards on data privacy protection. This hearing will provide leading technology companies and internet service providers an opportunity to explain their approaches to privacy, how they plan to address new requirements from the European Union and California, and what Congress can do to promote clear privacy expectations without hurting innovation”--Senator Thune.

Witnesses:

Mr. Len Cali, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy, AT&T Inc.
Mr. Andrew DeVore, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Amazon.com, Inc.
Mr. Keith Enright, Chief Privacy Officer, Google LLC
Mr. Damian Kieran, Global Data Protection Officer and Associate Legal Director, Twitter, Inc.
Mr. Guy (Bud) Tribble, Vice President for Software Technology, Apple Inc.
Ms. Rachel Welch, Senior VP, Policy & External Affairs, Charter Communications, Inc.

*Witness list subject to change (source).
Twitter: @SenateCommerce

Background:

The European Union's sweeping privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, became enforceable May 25, 2018, requiring websites to be more transparent about how they handle personal data and giving users more control over what companies can do with their information. A month later, California passed the United States' toughest data privacy law to date in an effort to head off an even stricter ballot initiative. The new California law does not go into effect until 2020, setting off a push in the tech industry for national privacy standards that would prevent (preempt) states from enforcing their own rules.

EFF.org: "The Senate Commerce Committee is getting ready to host a much-anticipated hearing on consumer privacy—and consumer privacy groups don’t get a seat at the table. Instead, the Committee is seeking only the testimony of big tech and Internet access corporations: Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Charter Communications, Google, and Twitter. Some of these companies have spent heavily to oppose consumer privacy legislation and have never supported consumer privacy laws. They know policymakers are considering new privacy protections, and are likely to view this hearing as a chance to encourage Congress to adopt the weakest privacy protections possible—and eviscerate stronger state protections at the same time. It is no coincidence that, in the past week, two leading industry groups (the Chamber of Commerceand the Internet Association) have called for federal preemption of state data privacy laws in exchange for weaker federal protections. For example, laws in California and Illinois require companies to have user consent to certain uses of their personal information (Nevada and Minnesota have these requirements for Internet access providers), while the industry proposals would only require transparency. That means that companies would be allowed to collect information without your permission as long as they tell you they’re doing it. The upcoming hearing at the Senate Commerce Committee may be the launch pad for this strategy of undoing stronger state laws ..."

2016-09-09

Senate & House Chairmen's Letter to Attorney General & Commerce Sec.

Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), sent the following letter (embed below) on September 8, 2016, to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, urging them to reconsider the IANA Stewardship Transition. Letter excerpts immediately below, followed by full letter embed. See also US Senator Cruz Attacks ICANN, Fadi Chehadé, IANA Transition (video) and ICANN Answers Questions About The IANA Stewardship Transition.

3 excerpts: Antitrust - Accountability - Jurisdiction

Letter (pdf) embed below:

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US Senator Cruz Attacks ICANN, Fadi Chehadé, IANA Transition (video)

US Senator Ted Cruz Urges Colleagues to "Stop Obama's Internet Giveaway"

Video above: U.S. Senator Cruz (R-Texas) took to the U.S. Senate floor Thursday, September 8, 2016, to give a speech against the Obama Administration's plan (and by implication, NTIA), to give away control of the Internet to an international body [ICANN] akin to the United Nations, singling out specifically, for criticism, ICANN's former President and CEO Fadi Chehadé:

“You look at the influence of foreign governments within ICANN, it should give us greater and greater concern.

“For example, ICANN’s former CEO Fadi Chehadé left ICANN to lead a high-level working group for China’s World Internet Conference. Mr. Chehadé’s decision to use his insider knowledge of how ICANN operates to help the Chinese government and their conference is more than a little concerning.

“This is the person who was leading ICANN, the body that we are being told to trust with our freedoms. Yet this man has since gone to work for the Chinese Internet Conference, which has rightly been criticized for banning members of the press such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.

“But you know what, even reporters you may fundamentally disagree with have a right to report and say what they believe. And yet, the World Internet Conference banned them – said ‘we do not want these reporters here, presumably, because we don’t like what they’re saying.’ – which led Reporters Without Borders to demand an international boycott of the conference, calling China the ‘enemy of the Internet.’ Mr. President, if China is the enemy of the Internet, do we want the enemy of the Internet having power over what you’re allowed to say, what you’re allowed to search for, what you’re allowed to read online? Do we want China, and Russia, and Iran having the power to determine if a website is unacceptable, it’s taken down?

“I would note that once this transition happens, there are serious indications that ICANN intends to seek to flee U.S. jurisdiction and flee U.S. laws. Indeed, earlier this summer, ICANN held a global conference in Finland in which jurisdiction shopping was part of their agenda, trying to figure out what jurisdiction should we base control of the Internet out of across the globe.

“A representative of Iran is already on record stating, ‘[w]e should not take it [for] granted that jurisdiction is already agreed to be totally based on U.S. law.’ Our enemies are not hiding what they intend to do.

“Not only is there a concern of censorship and foreign jurisdictions stripping U.S. law from authority over the Internet, there are also real national security concerns. Congress has received no assurances from the Obama administration that the U.S. Government will continue to have exclusive ownership and control of the .gov and .mil top-level domains in perpetuity, which are vital to our national security. The Department of Defense, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines all use the .mil top-level domain. The White House, the CIA, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security all use .gov.

“The only assurance ICANN has provided the federal government regarding .gov and .mil is that ICANN will notify the government in the future if it decides to give .gov and .mil to another entity. So if someone is going to the IRS, or what you think is the IRS, and you’re comforted that it’s on a .gov website so that you know it must be safe, you may instead find yourself victims of a foreign scam, a phishing scam, some other means of fraud with no basic protections.

“Congress should not sit by and let this happen. Congress must not sit by and let censorship happen ..." (emphasis added, full speech embedded below)

For more on former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé's shenanigans in China at the World Internet Conference, see on Domain Mondo: After Wuzhen, Should ICANN President & CEO Fadi Chehade Be Fired?:

"... Beyond the embarrassment and distracting spectacle that Fadi Chehade has brought upon ICANN at a critical juncture in its IANA transition planning, there are 2 aspects of Chehade's Wuzhen fiasco at play here which should be of concern to the ICANN Board and the "ICANN community"--1. That Fadi Chehade continuing as ICANN CEO, even for a few weeks until March 12, 2016, puts at risk the entire IANA transition process, from ... alarmed Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. ..."

The IANA stewardship transition is scheduled to become effective October 1, 2016, upon expiration of the IANA functions contract which ends September 30, 2016, as previously indicated by NTIA--see NTIA Tells ICANN: IANA Functions Contract Will Expire October 1, 2016. In Washington, D.C., TheHill.com has reported that next Wednesday, Cruz plans to hold a hearing on "Protecting Internet Freedom" and that Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) said Republicans in both chambers [U.S. House and U.S. Senate] were "discussing options" to "stop the transition from moving forward as part of a broader legislative package this month." See also: GOP chairmen ask administration to reconsider ICANN transition | TheHill.com Sept 8, 2016: "Signing on to the letter were Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)." --UPDATE: See Senate & House Chairmen's Letter to Attorney General & Commerce Sec. and ICANN Answers Questions About The IANA Stewardship Transition.

Transcript (pdf) of Senator Cruz's full speech embedded below:

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2016-05-19

Senate Commerce Hearing on ICANN & IANA Transition, Tuesday, May 24

UPDATE May 25, 2016: IANA Transition, What's Next, Years of Litigation in U.S. Federal Courts?
and May 26, 2016 Enhancing ICANN Accountability, Much Work Left for Work Stream 2.

U.S. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, announced a full committee hearing titled “Examining the Multistakeholder Plan for Transitioning the Internet Assigned Number Authority,” Tuesday, May 24, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. ET in the Senate Russell Building 253, Washington, D.C. Witness testimony, opening statements, and video livestream will be available on the Senate Commerce Committee website.

[UPDATE] Witnesses:

Mr. Michael Beckerman, President and CEO, The Internet Association
Mr. Steve DelBianco, Executive Director, NetChoice
The Honorable David A. Gross, former U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, U.S. State Department
Mr. Rick Manning, President, Americans for Limited Government
Mr. Brett Schaefer, Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs, Heritage Foundation
Mr. Andrew Sullivan, Chair, Internet Architecture Board

According to the announcement: "The hearing will examine the proposed transition of oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), a department of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that allocates Internet IP addresses and domain names, to the global multistakeholder community. Two years ago, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced its intention to transition IANA functions. On March 10, 2016, ICANN forwarded to the NTIA a transition proposal developed by the international community of Internet stakeholders. The NTIA set a target of 90 days to complete its review. Witnesses will testify on advantages and disadvantages of the proposed transition of IANA functions to the global multistakeholder community." (emphasis added)

Prepared Testimony of Brett Schaefer (highlighting added):

TheHill.com also reports Republican members of Congress are again moving to block the Obama administration's plan to hand off oversight of the internet domain name system. "A House Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday advanced a funding bill for Commerce, Justice and Science that included a provision barring the government from using funds to make the transition through 2017 ... Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) appears to be circulating a letter to colleagues pressing the head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA) to delay the handoff amid concerns." (TheHill, supra, emphasis added).

Members of the Committee:

Majority Members: